


Shared Body Heat.

by Chippa



Category: Callan (TV)
Genre: Crime&Christmas2020, Gen, shared body heat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28001154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chippa/pseuds/Chippa
Summary: Baby it's cold outside...  🥶Callan and Meres spend a chilly night together.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2
Collections: Crime & Christmas 2020





	Shared Body Heat.

**Author's Note:**

> This is for prompt 10 of the Crime and Christmas 2020 challenge. "Shared Body Heat".
> 
> It's also super rushed to try and post before midnight so apologies for the rushed ending. I might change it one day, if I can be bothered. 😃

“Quick, David, over here.”

Callan risked glancing behind him to see how close their pursuers were before quickly following where Toby was pointing and running down the dark alleyway ahead of them. Just in time they ducked out of sight before their foes turned the corner into the street they had just left. Callan pressed himself as flat as he could against the rough brickwork of the wall and hardly dared breathe as he heard the two KGB agents go thundering past, just feet from where he and Meres were standing. His lungs felt like they were going to burst and his heart sounded to him like someone was playing the bongoes way too loudly and at a terribly uneven tempo but they seemed to be safe for now.

Beside him, Meres was sucking in lungfuls of air. Good to see he wasn’t the only one feeling the strain from their little jog through the back streets of London. This job had been fubar from the start.

“When you’ve quite finished with all the huffing and puffing over there…” Callan turned to Meres only to find him glaring back at him.

“Says the old man who looks like he wants to go home and sleep for a week” retorted Meres.

“Nothing I’d rather do” said Callan but we can’t risk going home yet.

“Well I’m not staying in this filthy alley longer than I have to”, said Meres with a grimace, as he looked around himself for the first time and tried to un-see the grime and rubbish around them, and please don’t let that be a used condom in the corner there, dear god, this place really was disgusting.

“I’m not suggesting we stay here you dozy sod, although I always imagined you’d have intimate knowledge of dark alleyways somehow Toby. I was thinking more about the sections safe house in this area, it’s not far from here.

“Urgh, I’m not sure that will be very much better” Meres replied before adding quietly to himself “any alleyways I would be acquainted with would be much more high class thank you”.

Shaking his head and pretending he hadn’t heard that last comment, he really didn’t want to know he thought to himself, Callan peered out of their dank hiding place before slowly and carefully leading the way to the section safe house.

************************************************************************************************************

Standing in the overgrown back garden of the sections safe house for this part of London Callan tried his best to hide his look of dismay, it did look rough even he had to admit and he should know, having lived in some right squalid dives over the years.

Meres had no such compunction. “Christ David, this place looks like it should be condemned”.

“Give over Toby, it’s not that bad”, not believing himself even as he said it. “It has to look like crap so people think it’s abandoned and don’t come nosing about”.

Meres merely raised his eyebrows in disbelief and set about picking the lock on the back door.

Once inside he looked around in disgust. “Well the disguise is certainly working David old son, looking at this place I can understand why even the squatters avoid it – it’s a dump”.

“It’s got four walls and a roof and more importantly no enemy agents, what more do you want, bells on it”?

Meres pushed past Callan, walking through the tiny kitchen to enter the living room. Flicking the light switch as he passed he sighed deeply when nothing happened. “Don’t tell me, there’s no power” complained Meres grumbling to himself as he went back into the kitchen in search of the electricity meter and fumbling in his pocket for a shilling.

Callan left him to it and wandered through the rest of the house checking the place over. When he came back ten minutes later Meres was still grumbling.

“Three shillings this thing has stolen from me” Meres was saying as he gingerly crouched in front of the ancient looking meter, desperately trying to see the machine and keep his suit trousers relatively clean at the same time, an almost impossible task in the dusty house.

“Three shillings”, he repeated “and still no power. It’s daylight robbery old son, that’s what it is”.

“I think you mean midnight robbery mate, it’s nearly 1 am Toby. Come on, stop fiddling with that old thing and come to bed”.

“Well as tempting as that offer is David I was hoping to get some sort of power working. In case you hadn’t noticed it’s bloody freezing in here”.

“All the more reason to stop moaning and get your arse in bed then isn’t it” said Callan. “Look, I don’t want to stay in this dump any longer than you do. In the morning we can get out of here but for now we’re stuck with it. Stop whinging and get up those stairs”.

“Yes, mum” replied Toby facetiously. “Are you this domineering with all your girlfriends”? He asked as he walked up the stairs with Callan trailing behind him. “I think I like it”.

“Leave off Toby, you’ll be expecting me to tuck you in next”.

“Breakfast in bed would be nice too, pity we’ve no gas to cook it on”. As he said this Meres was stood in the doorway eying the room with evident distaste before noticing the large double bed and the thick eiderdown duvet. “Well at least my bed looks rather cosy, so where are you sleeping David”?

“In here, with you”. He held up his hand and added quickly, “look, I don’t like it either, but this place is a shithole and the other bedroom is uninhabitable, I wouldn’t even expect Lonely to sleep in there”. Callan was caught completely unawares when, instead of the snide comment he was expecting from Meres, Toby just flat out refused.

“Sorry David, it’s bad enough that I’ve been shot at tonight; I’ve been chased half way across London; I’ve been robbed by a stupid Raffles wannabe electricity meter, but this, _this_ is the final straw. I am not sharing a bed with you. I’d rather stay up all night downstairs, _alone._

“Don’t be daft Toby, you can’t stay up all night, you need to get some sleep in case those goons come back, you can hardly shoot straight if you’re falling over asleep”.

“Ah” exclaimed Meres triumphantly. “If those agents come back then someone should be on guard and I volunteer myself for the job”. 

“Makes a change” David muttered to himself.

Ignoring him Meres continued “anyway if they don’t come back it won’t matter if I have no sleep and if they do then I’ll be ready and waiting”.

He couldn’t argue with that logic, Callan admitted to himself. “Have it your way Toby” he sighed. “Don’t blame me if they come in and shoot you in your sleep”.

“I’ll be fine, don’t be such a worry gut David” he said. “Too bloody cold to sleep anyway” he muttered to Callan’s retreating back as the man headed back up the stairs to the comfort of that warm, cosy bed.

Half an hour later, just as Callan was asleep and dreaming he felt the mattress shift and an icy body crawl under the covers next to him.

“Don’t say a word” whispered Meres, “it’s bloody cold enough to freeze the blood in your veins down there old chap, even worse than the old school dorms”.

“Shut up Toby” Callan said with a smile as he felt Meres spoon up behind him, the man desperately trying to leech some warmth back into his frozen body via shared body heat.

“As long as the cold is the only thing that’s similar to your old school dormitory”!

Smirking, Toby just snuggled closer against Callan's back and pressed his face into David's shoulder.

He’d tell Toby tomorrow that he’d known all along how to fix the meter just to see the look on his face. For now he was content to snuggle deeper under the covers, the slowly warming body pressed into his back a strangely comforting presence as he let himself drift into a deep, dreamless sleep.


End file.
